Caleb Plumlee Email & Phone Number

Remote

Missoula, Montana, United States

Fine Art Landscape and Wildlife Photography

Missoula, Montana, United States

Terre Haute, Indiana

Plant leader with full P&L responsibility over aerospace manufacturing facility with >$23M annual revenue. Provided cross-functional management of departments including Operations, Production, Finance, Quality and HR; and general management of 60+ employees.

Hayden, Idaho

Research and Development Engineer. Lead design, and manufacturing startup, of multiple new product introductions. Provided program management support and process improvement while maintaining production schedule and leading prototype development • Redesigned legacy products and designed industry-new tools. Redesigns reduced COGS by up to 15.7%. Leveraged machining capabilities to undercut product weight reduction goals by >25%. • Introduced heavy-gauge thermoforming capabilities to production. Upgraded outdated thermoforming equipment to eliminate costly outsource operations.• Developed and implemented database-driven Standardized Shop Instruction system for company wide use and lead engineering documentation rollover to new CAD system.

Hayden, Idaho

Program Manager and Head Engineer for multiple composite products from various global customers. Special focus on new program integration and complex process improvement. Provided program dedicated engineering support while closely working with business development and executive management on new production and bid decisions. • Managed program startup of KC-46 Refueling-Boom Camera-Fairing project. Accepted program while it was struggling through qualification and successfully drove it through first delivery. Lead engineering, quality, and production control departments to improve material yield from ~45% to >72%, and drive labor hour reduction of >41%. Balanced delicate customer communication and process improvement efforts to ensure both a quality product and full customer satisfaction.• Guided startup of new Tamarack Active Winglet program. Achieved on-time delivery first product and continued schedule maintenance. First delivered product exceeded product testing requirements and customer expectations. Developed labor requirements and shop floor layout. Provided expert guidance to customer on best practice material and process decisions.• Lead cross functional teams in Root Cause Analysis and Corrective Action (RCCA) exercises. Improvements stemming from efforts included CNC scrap reduction, improved material yields, etc. resulted in >$200k/yr savings. Provided customized focus training for supervisors and management on effective and efficient RCCA process implementation and maintenance.

Cottonwood Falls, Ks

Responsible for managing customer relations, on-time delivery, engineering accuracy, and quality for the Boeing 737 Cabin Crew Floor/FWD Pressure Bulkhead and Nose Wheel Well assemblies for our customer Spirit Aerosystems. Programs comprised of 1500+ detail parts from 22+ suppliers in multiple countries, with over 1000 shipments annually. • Managed new-program startup of Boeing 737 MAX Cabin Crew Floor and Nose Wheel Well assemblies. On-time delivery of FAI unit within 8 months of initial engineering delivery. Continued on-time delivery of full-rate 737 NG assemblies during MAX startup• Spearheaded process improvement and design for manufacturing efforts. Improvements include elimination of large tooling costs, reduction of daily defects, and reducing man-hours per unit by large margins.• Directed engineering team initiatives improving customer engineering review and production planning efficiency and accuracy. Initiated and lead weekly engineering execution meetings for continuous improvement activities. • Performed material and labor estimates, along with product changes analysis, for 737 MAX startup. Manage high-volume engineering changes to coordinate efficient incorporation processes.

Cottonwood Falls Ks

Lead engineer for 737 Cabin Crew Floor and Nose Wheel Well assemblies while managing workload with programs including Boeing 787, 747, 777 and various Gulfstream products. Collaborated daily with all departments including estimating, supply chain, receiving, inventory, shop control, production, shipping, and program management, to gain understanding of, and assist with total product value-stream.• Developed computer programs automating engineering processes and databases to track facility and engineering performance. One particular program eliminated estimated 520+ man-hours per year from LMI Cottonwood facility and has been distributed to multiple other facilities.• Created detailed work instructions and process definitions standardizing engineering and production practices across all facility programs. Document standardization efforts greatly reduced engineering time, and, in some cases, reduced planning documents by 100+ pages.• Designed assembly tooling to facilitate increasing production rates and improve quality and efficiency. Tooling designs ranging from small drill-jigs to full floor-mounted assembly stands.• Initiated and managed both customer, and internal, engineering changes. Identification of critical sub-assembly breakouts increased production efficiency and lowered recurring costs by focusing labor efforts to appropriate work centers.

Cottonwood Falls, Ks

Engineering Internship under mentorship of lead engineer/program manager and general manager. Focused on improving shop floor process flow and documentation as well as supporting engineering change and rate-increase efforts.• Developed shop aids from complex aerospace assembly drawings. Standardized engineering planning documentation throughout facility. Shop aids provided a standard level of detail and simplification for engineering team documents so that shop floor operators with little to no background in assembly could quickly become proficient.• Provided quality control/root cause analysis for assembly processes. Collaborated with production, quality assurance, production control, and customers to determine best-practice actions and identify shop-wide improvement activities.• Designed tooling to facilitate large and small aerospace assemblies. Fast implementation of cost effective tooling facilitated minimal downtime during process changes for new-program corrective actions.• Lead process improvement projects including hours-per-unit reduction efforts, hardware point of use improvements, and 5s efforts.• Managed facility-wide technical document organization system, providing automated systems for error detection and clean-up.

Steelville, Mo

Engineering Intern under mentorship of company's lead engineer. Focused on machine shop operations and function.• Devised and performed testing and optimization for water jet tables. Developed travel speed and garnet feed rate tables for various materials, and cut radii, as programming reference for the engineering teams.• Operated various CNC and manual machines, and precision inspection equipment. 3 & 4 axis milling machines, water jet tables, etc.• Performed inspection of precision aerospace components using optical and laser inspection media as well as precision inspection tooling.• Repaired and maintained industrial machining equipment. Identified opportunities for implementation of periodic maintenance scheduling.

Bachelors Science, Aerospace Engineering, Gpa 3.56

Activities and Societies: AIAA, Student Union Board, Senior Design Team Leader

Education record